Whether it be inflation, an epidemic of avian flu, or “increased costs” from the lingering pandemic, the owners of the grocery chains of Canada have no shortage of excuses to divert attention away from the sky-rocketing prices of food across the country. My groceries are not exorbitant: I buy familiar staples which anyone would be familiar with like bread, milk, eggs, and cheese. Regular items which, in the past, left me with enough money in my budget to occasionally visit a bar with friends or treat myself to some takeout. In the early stages of 2023, I have noticed that each time my total is tallied at the register, I steadily have to account more and more of my meagre income to food. I am not the only one who feels that each month, my money stretches thinner and thinner.
According to a study from Dalhousie University, Victoria, B.C. has the highest food prices of any locality across the country. As students are often too busy to juggle a full-time job and strenuous classwork, attendees of the University of Victoria and Camosun College are forced to bear the worst of the ever-growing cost of food, on top of the already laughably high rent and fuel prices in the city. With the compounding factors of tuition increases which have jumped for international students by over 30 percent in the last three years, an expensive public transit system, and limited time to work a job, students have turned to raiding grocery store dumpsters for food out of desperation. The University of Victoria Students’ Society operates a free store to distribute small portions of free food to students and has reported that since the beginning of the year, its usage has increased dramatically.
More and more students are beginning to face difficult choices between food, rent, transportation, and textbooks — all of which are essential to maintaining a successful academic career. As the situation grows more desperate, UVic has received calls to freeze tuition, which for domestic students has been increased by the maximum legal limit of 2 percent annually, but no such freeze has even been considered. In the UVic student elections for March 2023, nearly every candidate ran on a platform of lobbying the school to implement some kinds of relief measures — but faith in the school to follow through with assistance is dismal as budget cuts are announced in tandem with hikes in on-campus prices for nearly every product. In 2022, the living wage for the city of Victoria actually surpassed Vancouver’s as the most expensive city in the province and a contender for the top spot in Canada. The marketing teams of grocery chains continue to excel in announcing ever more convoluted excuses for their blatant profiteering over some of Victoria’s most vulnerable population. Even so-called “budget options” for food like store brands are beginning to fall out of reach for many as the noose is incrementally tightened. Despite the Liberal government’s one-time pittance payment of $500 for low-income families announced in December 2022, the program failed to reach most students as its publicity was very low and many missed the deadline for collection. The $500 “top-up” was intended to assist low-income renters such as students but insultingly enough, is not even enough to cover a single month of rent anywhere in Victoria.
For those who live outside of university campuses in the greater Victoria area, the choice between the outrageous prices of the numerous local Thrifty Foods stores, where a five-pack of chicken breasts is approaching $25, and a long commute to stores catering to lower-income demographics like Walmart has become pronounced. People living in somewhat cheaper suburbs on the outskirts of the city are being forced to ask themselves whether their limited time or their hunger is more pressing. As time passes and the crisis of food insecurity drops from the news cycle, how many students will decide to study with an empty stomach? Will the students and residents of Victoria continue to simply watch their stomachs and wallets grow thin? No!
Solidarity is on the rise! As students and workers, our struggles are shared: let us organize and demand action in the interests of the people, and not in the interests of corporations profiting from inflation. Roll back prices, raise wages! Never should we have to choose between food or education again!